When DSSENT’s Taipei Chapter turned two, the celebration wasn’t just a party. It was a hip hop cultural exchange built around music, and Curators of Hip Hop was in the room.
BANG magazine covered the anniversary in its Hot Issue, sitting down with three voices from three different corners of the culture: Ben, director of DSSENT; Jermaine, founder of New York’s Curators of Hip Hop; and Deejay Vicar, known as the “King of Diggin’.”
DSSENT got its start on American streets in 2009 before returning to its roots in Taiwan. Its Ximending shop, the Taipei Chapter, carries a West Coast spirit into one of Asia’s liveliest neighborhoods.
Looking back, Jermaine says the night opened his eyes.
“What made it special was seeing how much interest there is, not just in hip hop, but in Black culture and consciousness, all fused together,” he says. “We take for granted how connected those things are. They’re the DNA of hip hop. They carry a rebelliousness, an outspokenness, and that’s exactly why people in different parts of the world, in this case Taiwan, relate to it so deeply.”
That spirit is built into DSSENT itself. “Even the name was chosen to go against the grain culturally where they are,” he says. “They spelled it differently just to push that even further.”
“It tells me that no matter how far apart we are, no matter how different we seem culturally or ethnically, hip hop has a unique ability to make us relate to each other. I haven’t seen any other genre of music do that.”
Hip hop was born in the Bronx, but it belongs to everyone who carries it forward. Taipei is proof.
